Pumpkin Biscotti

I was invited to attend a "cookie exchange". BUT not a normal "cookie exchange". It was the
Kansas City Food Bloggers Cookie Exchange. And I was hesitant to bring a traditional Italian biscotti recipe,
because I felt it was
expected that I add a little twist or be real creative. And I'm glad I found this pumpkin biscotti recipe in one of my
grandma's cookbooks.

Although these follow the basic process for baking a traditional biscotti recipe - you will have to
take a bit longer to get these to really dry out. And that's what you want. The history of a biscotti
is that the wives or moms would make these for their sailor sons (or husbands). They would pack them for their journey because they wouldn't get
stale. (A traditional Italian biscotti recipe has no egg to make the cookie safe for keeping awhile.)

If you want a pumpkin flavor and this isn't exactly what you were looking for check out my pumpkin dessert recipes.
Thank you for stopping by -

Procedure

* Sift together all the dry ingredients into a large bowl. And really do "sift" (or use beater to get ingredients mixed but too
you need to sift or beat for the "air pump")

* In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, pumpkin, and vanilla extract.

* Pour the pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture.

* Mix until it's crumble-y.

* Spray the kitchen counter with Pam and lightly work the dough till it's together

* Lightly grease a baking sheet or line it with waxed paper or parchment paper.

* Shape the dough into a log - either one big log or two smaller logs.

* The loaf/loaves should be only 1/2 inch high.

* Bake for 30 minutes at 350 F - or until the center is firm when you press the log.

* The smaller loaves need about 25 minutes to cook.

* Let biscotti log cool for 20-25 minutes

* Take a serrated knife and cut into 1/2 inch wide pieces.

* Turn the oven to 300 F and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes.

* Cool completely.

* If the cookie still looks moist after the second baking - leave them out to dry (only if you don't have animals or
family that will eat them) Another drying method I use is to shut the oven door and turn off the heat.

* Give yourself 2 hours for
prep and baking. That would be a safe estimate.

A lot of spice - do I need them?

Yup. You really do. You are almost looking for a pumpkie pie flavor within the biscotti. You don't need Penzey spices. I just happened to
LOVE them. Any brand will do. You just need a lot of flavoring with this.

Too hard Or Too soft?

Pumpkin biscotti is no different in baking than any other biscotti.
So generally I've found if ANY biscotti is too tough- you may have cut them too thick (I do this a lot.)
If they are too soft - you probably didn't dry them enough in the second baking.

I have grown up children now and grand children. But I remember those days well. It was happy. And it was sad. I was happy my kids were excited
about a new shcool year. And I was sad they were growing up.

The first week or two back I would almost dance through the house! No more wet towels thrown on the floor as the kids came in from the sprinkler. No
more messes in the kitchen. And then I'd suddenly get the urge - to mess up the kitchen - FOR ME!!!

I'd bake. And experiment. And make new dinner items. But mostly, I'd bake sweets. I'd want my kids to have cookies when they got off the bus.
And pretty much
what you see in my drop cookie recipes are the cookies I'd have made for after-school treats.
Won't be long and we will be making hot chocolates and baked apple desserts
as fall approaches